


Fall Maiko Week 2017

by lactoseintolerantmilkshakeenthusiast



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-18 06:46:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12383034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lactoseintolerantmilkshakeenthusiast/pseuds/lactoseintolerantmilkshakeenthusiast
Summary: One-offs for Maiko Week





	1. Day 1: Redirect

He missed.

His head felt the heaviest it’s ever been, while also the lightest. He only saw red. He heard a muffled laughter through high-pitched ringing. Before he knew it, his vision blurred to a pitch black, and the world was silent.

And then a booming thunder clap jolted him awake.

Zuko sat up as slowly as he could. He held his hands in front of his face, and even though he could barely make them out in the darkness, he knew he was shaking. With a deep breath, he got out of bed and crossed the room, stopping to look out the window. He gripped the curtain as though he were a frightened child holding on to his mother’s dress. Each time he tried to concentrate on his breathing, the vision returned and he lost his train of thought.

A gentle creak gave away that the door had been opened, and after some hushed requests to the guards just outside, it was closed and Mai was at her husband’s side.

“Same as last time?” she asked in a whisper.

He nodded feebly.

“I’m right here when you’re ready.”

Minutes ticked by. The guard came in holding a tray with a teapot and two cups, and the second he was dismissed, Zuko collapsed into his wife’s arms, sobbing. She held him tightly, running her hands through his hair and whispering the usual ‘it’s okay’ and ‘I’m here, darling’ until eventually his breath steadied and he pulled away.

They walked over to the sitting area by the hearth, and Mai poured them each a cup of tea while Zuko sat down, huddled into himself.

“I never thought of the possibility until after it happened,” he said bluntly as he accepted the cup. “What’s even worse,” he added after a sip, “is that it wasn’t the first time it happened. Several times in my life, my father tried to kill me.”

Mai just sat and listened. While Zuko having nightmares of dying on the Day of Black Sun was something she had grown used to, he normally didn’t talk about them, aside from describing the manner in which he died. But this was the fourth time in a row he’d dreamed of dying by lightning strike at the hands of his father, and clearly it was getting to him.

“Maybe you should see a healer,” she suggested.

“What for?”

“To look at your chi. Something’s blocked, and it’s causing you to relive a fear that you’ve made amends with nearly twenty years ago.”

Zuko pondered that for a moment. After a long sip of tea, he put his cup on the table and sighed.

“Maybe you’re right. Couldn’t hurt, I suppose,” he said, standing up and stretching.

“Of course I’m right,” Mai said, moving towards the bed and leaning against the frame. “Now come here before the rest of the world wakes up.”

With a grin, Zuko embraced his wife, and they happily took some time to themselves before another busy day.


	2. Day 3: Belonging

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 12:03 am, therefore it still counts as on time.

It was their favorite spot. They’d go to have picnics there whenever they got the chance, often at sunset. Try as she might to insult it, Mai always secretly loved watching the sunset, especially with Zuko. Maybe it was more the fact that she was with Zuko.

They laid on the blanket together, admiring the oranges and purples of the sky and pointing out each new star that pokes through the clouds. Zuko started to feel a bit tired, but he just didn’t want to leave, so he let himself doze off.

Mai woke him up once the sun had fully set. As he stretched, she began packing up the picnic basket.

“Long day?” she asked while wrapping up the food. Zuko sighed.

“Every day’s a long one now,” he answered, monotone. He picked up the teapot and, after seeing there wasn’t much left, poured it out into the dirt a few feet away.

Mai stood up and shook out the blanket, saying, “Well, the world is changing. Someday you’ll be able to take more breaks, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, here’s hoping,” he said as he placed the teapot into the basket and took the other end of the blanket to help Mai fold it.

At the final fold, Zuko leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the tip of her nose. She smiled, holding the blanket to her chest in an attempt to ground herself.

“Aw, looks like you’ve gone too long without me,” Zuko teased. “Let me fix that.” He leaned in and wrapped his arms around her, tilting his head slightly to avoid bumping noses. She dropped the blanket on their feet and put her arms around his neck, graciously accepting the kiss.

He could have stayed like that forever. Standing under the stars, holding her; kissing her. He felt most at home now than ever before, here in her arms. Of course, the kiss had to break eventually, and when it did they looked into each other’s eyes for a moment.

Mai lowered her arms, signaling to Zuko that she needed to bend down to pick up the blanket again. He picked up the basket and took her hand, but she stopped when she realized he wasn’t walking alongside her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Come here.”

“Zuko, it’s after dark, you need to be back at the palace befo--”

“Mai.” She looked back at him. He looked serious. Of course, Zuko was always serious, but he looked vulnerable. She stepped closer. He pulled her in until their foreheads were pressed together.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” she whispered.

“Absolutely nothing,” he said, then added, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Marry me.”

Her eyes went wide and she pulled back her head to look at him more clearly. The only thing she could say was, “What?”

“Marry me. I mean it. It’s been a few years, the post-war agendas have come to a more sustainable pace, and hey, what’s a better way to gather diplomats and establish friendly affairs than a wedding?”

He suddenly noticed that throughout his ramblings, Mai had been standing motionless, her mouth agape.

“Mai?” He put the basket down, took the blanket from her free hand and placed it on top, and brought her hands up to his chest. “Mai, I love you. I have for almost as long as I can remember. I know you’re probably scared, and I know we’re younger than is typical for a pairing that isn’t arranged, but just now, that kiss, I don’t know what about it was different, but it felt different. It felt like everything had fallen into place. I think it’s time for us, Mai. Will you marry me?”

She took her hands from him and held his face for a moment, stroking his cheek with her thumb.

“If you think you really had to say all of that for me to agree to marry you, you’re crazier than your uncle.”

Their embrace resulted in gentle hand-holding all the way home, and Zuko couldn’t wait to write out the announcement letters to his friends and family.


	3. Day 4: Forget

Zuko sat at the dinner table, ready to enjoy a meal with his family just like any other day. As he shifted to get more comfortable, his wife and daughter walked in. Izumi gave him a tight hug and sat next to him, Mai sitting opposite her.

“Were you able to settle the conflict on the Trail Islands?” Mai asked.

“No, but we’re getting closer. They’re finally ready to name their demands, at least.”

“Well, that’s something.”

Silence fell over the family as they ate, though it wasn’t by any means uncomfortable. To eat and talk at the same time is rude, Mai always said. But then they were both caught off guard when Izumi asked:

“Daddy, are you sad today?”

Mai and Zuko shared a look of confusion.

“No,” he said slowly, “I can’t think of any reason I’d be sad today. Why do you ask, sweetie?”

“Because it’s the twenty-third.”

Another look between parents. Suddenly, his eyes went wide.

\-----------------

_“It’s the anniversary, isn’t it?”_

_“Three years ago today, I was banished. I lost it all. I want it back. I want the avatar, I want my honor, my throne. I want my father not to think I’m worthless.”_

\-----------------

_“I meant you no disrespect, I am your loyal son.”_

_“Rise and fight, Prince Zuko!”_

_“I won’t fight you!”_

_“You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.”_

\-----------------

Zuko sighed and put down his hand, not realizing he’d been holding on to his face where his scar was. He looked at his daughter.

“You learned about how I got my scar today.”

She nodded, giving every child’s signature ‘m-hm.’

He pushed his chair back slightly and held open his arms. “Come here,” he said.

Izumi climbed into her father’s lap and looked up at him gingerly. He gave her a gentle half-hug and said,

“Thank you for thinking of me, Izzy, but today doesn’t make me sad anymore. I found where I belong, and I found great friends, and now I have you and your mother. Okay?”

She wrapped her arms around him as best she could, giving a tight hug and a small ‘okay’ before moving back to her own seat to finish eating her dinner.

The Firelord and his wife clasped their hands together under the table, secretly thanking each other for their presence.


	4. Day 5: Sunder

“Mind if I join you, ladies?”

Mai and Izumi turned to see Zuko, holding a rose in one hand, his free arm open for a hug.

“Daddy!” Izumi hopped up and clung to her father tightly, as though she hadn’t seen him for weeks.

Mai held the flower close, and mentally remarked at how, even ten years later, his spontaneous acts of chivalry always managed to make her insides melt. Zuko sat next to his wife and let his daughter free to continue playing.

“You missed it, about ten minutes ago we were feeding the turtleducks and Izzy got to hold one of the babies,” Mai said, then she got Izumi’s attention, “isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

“Yeah!” The three-year-old proudly yelled. “Its feaders were soft and its shell was like a rock and it almost felled asleep but then the mama started to leave so I hadda let it go.”

Zuko giggled at his little girl’s impeccable storytelling skills, while she immediately went back to digging a small line in the ground with a stick. He then leaned in and kissed Mai’s cheek, then her jawline, then her neck before pulling back.

“You know,” she said in a hushed tone, “you still owe me for last week.”

“Believe me, I know.”

He brushed her hair aside and brought her lips to his for a moment. Then they heard a loud snap. They sat frozen as they saw Izumi held a stick, which she had broken while digging, that was on fire. Zuko quickly took it from her and dunked his entire fist into the pond, saying,

“Izzy, honey, you need to be careful!”

“I didn’t mean to! It just broked and then I looked at it and it did that all by itself!”

Him and his wife shared a look, and they simultaneously realized that at no point had either of them told Izumi about bending.

“It wasn’t the stick sweetheart,” he moved himself back a safe distance and produced a small flame in his hand. Izumi stared at it in awe. “It means you can do this, too. Lots of people can. And tomorrow, I’ll find you a teacher so you know how to control it. Okay?”

Izumi looked at her hands. She brought her eyes up to meet her father’s and nodded.


	5. Day 6: Linger

“I’m sorry, sir, but the Firelord won’t be seeing any audiences today. Please head through that door to schedule…”

Mai had heard the guards’ spiel at least ten times by now. Hadn’t the news gotten around by now? Surely it had, or at the very least all of these people had come from remote places simply didn’t run into the people on their way out of the palace. She looked out the window to the hill, and saw the silhouette was still there, just as it had been since that morning.

She stopped behind him, not sure how to make her presence known -- that is, if he hadn’t heard her walk up. After a moment he let it be known that he had:

“I’m alright, Mai. I just…”

She sat next to him, gently rubbing his back.

“He knew how much you loved him,” she said.

“But how?” Zuko’s voice wavered, a sign that his tear ducts were near overflowing. Mai held him tighter.

“Because you listened to him. He always knew what to say for you, whether or not you wanted to hear it, and you took that in. You let it guide you. And he was proud of you.”

Zuko leaned into his wife’s shoulder. After spending hours sitting in front of his uncle’s grave, crying openly was no longer a concern for him. All he wanted now was the strength to stand up and leave.

“It feels like I’ve been forced to trade a soft mattress for a cot,” he said.

“Well,” Mai sighed, “a cot isn’t as soft as a mattress, but it’s just as supportive. If not, more, because it reminds you how it feels to stay on the ground.”

Zuko chuckled. “I guess so.”


	6. Day 7: Reflection

Though he had gotten used to it by now, Zuko very much disliked being weak. He hated needing help to sit or stand or most everything else. He knew that there was nothing left he could do that would impact the world the way it would have back when he was twenty; all he did these days was sit in various parts of the palace and watch everyone else go about their lives.

Today, he chose the garden. He enjoyed the sun on his face and the sound of the birds in the trees. A few feet away was the pond, where a family of turtleducks playfully accepted the bread crumbs offered by his daughter and grandson.

As he looked at Izumi, he noticed just how much she took after her mother. Strong chin, narrow eyes, angular nose. And then there was Iroh. Zuko was moved to tears when he was told that his grandson would be named for the most important man in his life, especially since he absolutely would have done so himself, had he ever had a son.

His eyes drifted to their reflection in the water, and just as it did, Iroh laughed -- a big, loud, unfiltered laughter that only a four year old can produce. Zuko smiled to himself, and in his mind the laugh echoed and morphed into that of his daughter’s when she was that young.

He could swear the reflection in the water was that of Mai and Izumi. After a moment of marvelling at how beautiful his family is, he grabbed his cane and used all of his strength to pick himself up.

“Father!” Izumi called. Zuko turned to face her, not afraid to let her see the tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yes, yes, darling,” he said, “I’m just, ah, going to pop in and visit your mother.”

Izumi watched as he walked off toward the hill where her mother was buried.


End file.
